One of the elements of the game I feel like we did not quite address in Mk II was the disparity between the fury and focus mechanics. These differences meant HORDES always felt like a powerhouse early in the game with warlocks and their rampaging beasts generating vast and terrible amounts of fury while warcasters and their battlegroups struggled to compete, blow for blow. Later in the game, as attrition took its toll, WARMACHINE started to feel dominant with the warcaster functioning at peak performance while fury-starved warlocks, by then largely depleted of beasts, had to self-harm for every late-game boost or spell cast.

Well… No more.

With the development of these new editions of the game, we took great pains to address these differences in hopes of providing a more satisfying play experience with whichever system you prefer.

With the addition of Power Up, every warjack with a functional cortex in its warcaster’s control range (yes, it is control range now) gains a focus point at the start of the Control Phase. The warcaster can then allocate up to two additional focus points to each warjack in its battlegroup. We have found that this one change to the rules has vastly improved the effectiveness of warjacks, making larger battlegroups not only viable but a nightmare for the opposition. No more trying to decide whether you want your warcaster to cast another Arcane Bolt or you want your Charger to run. Now you play with the pedal to the metal at all times!

Not to see it left in the dust, we also took a good long look at the fury mechanics and eventually settled on the addition of Spirit Bond*, a rule stating that in addition to the fury a warlock leeches each turn, that warlock also can gain up to one additional fury point for each of his light, heavy, and gargantuan warbeasts that have been destroyed or removed from play during the game. It seems warbeasts now continue to serve their masters from the grave, at least for a little while. Spirit Bond offsets a lot of the late-game weaknesses in the fury mechanic, keeping your warlock in the game until the bitter end.

[*Editor's note: Spirit Bond is the correct name of the ability, not Soul Bond as was previously reported in this article, sorry for any confusion.]

Sorry, the souls of lesser warbeasts do not seem to be so potent.

While game changing in their own right, these two new rules are among the many additions we have made to the new editions of HORDES and WARMACHINE. The rules have been streamlined and honed to a razor’s edge.